Buran.3796

^ Actually, the new system resembles the ultra homogenized PvP in which 80% of builds ran Divinity since everything else was too mediocre to be chosen. Now is al Scholar or Dragonhunter runes for power builds, Trapper for condi builds, Thief or Akeem relics. There's a bit more for support but that is a niche role for niche game modes, anyway. The only reason ANet did the change was to add some vertical progression to push regearing and the purchase of future expansions with OP relics. I'm actually surprised they didm't monetized the relics with skins, but now that the gates to new gear are open they could do in the future with belts or anything else. Honestly, I don't even care that much: didn't buy the expansion, don't play instanced content nor meta builds; but the nerfs to the old system already cost me over 50 gold coins just replacinf Fireworks with alternatives as Runes of Surging, and in the process tome niche builds as trapper DH got deleted, so I don't see a single improvement.

This is from yesterday, a few minutes before goint to work; Mandulis is one of the few buinties which I wasn't able to solo with my celestial Vindicator due how much crowd control this champion spits. Despite I barely have a clue about how Mesmer/Mirage works I had no problems soloing Mandulis with the unstable magic abilities Propagator and Spining Laser (I wasn't even aware that ignores most of damage until you break the defiant bar; that made it last longer that what whould have to). For reference, once I got the proper pace, took me 1'35" to erase his HP from 50% to 25%. A wild Reaper appeared when Mandulis HP was at 12% to leech a bit but at that time I still had over 2?20" left so the thing was already done... Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAYZlZwQYRsEmJWyP9PNA-DyIY1oi/MyUJ0rMQhPEAA-e Ain't get easier than that...

^ Yep. Unless you rely almost solely in a single condi source (as burn guardian) the best choice used to be NM or a specific rune for your main condition. But with the 6th effect replaced by stats and NM only giving +20% condi duration the obvoius choice is just run Trapper on almost every condition build: +15% condi duration and + 400 condition damage in stats. Trapper is also better due doesn't require dungeon tokens, so helps to kill that instanced content even faster. People arguing that relics would bring up variety were deadly wrong. Now instead of niche builds running a variety of runes due the extra minion, added +10% HP, stealth on traps, +25% movement pace... You have a couple of runes to use if you run a power build* and another two for condi. Everything else is mathematically subpar. SAnd most of relics are hot garbage, also. Get amazed for the infinite possibilities... (*) Scholar if you class caps crit chance, Ranger if not (until you notice that you chose the wrong class and then you reroll to a class which caps crit chance).

But are they? Renegade uses Shiro + Jalis in PvP/WvW roaming; Shiro provides mobility, extra damage and a strong AoE cc, Jalis a strong heal with plenty of cleansing, a unblockable cc with 900 range, a very good source of AoE stability pulses and nice damage mitigation. The Renegade spec traitline offers Citadel Bombardment, which along Spiritcrush and Scorchrazor works well about foes abusing projectile reflects, and also very good access to fury and vigor. What Herald brings up? Quickness?(*) Better sustain? If you take Glint legend instead of Jalis your condi cleanses becomes crap, and you no longer have access to stability; Herald cc are AoE unlike forcend engagement, but shorter in range and easy to block/evade. Replace Shiro with Glint and you'll became more tankier but worse at positioning, which I don't think would bring better results. Vindicator's traitline is PvE eoriented aand The Alliance legend has almost no cc. Yes the cleanses from Tree Song are good, but the heals in that legend suck at PvP and I don't see The Alliance being any better than Shiro or Jalis, so why you would run a Vindicator with a bow? Take this with a grain of salt, since you're much better player than me, and I'll probably miss things that you're aware of facing top players constantly, but I'm not sure at all that weapon mastery changes much the things outside PvE for the short bow. Yesterady faced an "immortal" Mesmer at WvW with like a trillion of i-frames and reflects and after like two minutes of trying to burst me while basically ignoring most of my attacks finally ended with him fleeing away with less than 5% HP and all his resources depleted.... And all was facing was my cele Renebow with runes of Surging and Durability relic. Is Rev (all specs) less powerfull than current meta builds at PvP/WvW? Yes. But I don't think that the Renegade short bow build is in a bad place at competitive game modes at the moment. If all, I miss more damage at PvE in exchange for the loss of sustain that Herald and Vindi provide. (*) Quickness isn't available at WvW/PvP from Herald's Elevated Compassion, so I wonder if the traitline offers anything at all over Renegade.

By the way, is Weapon Mastery account bound in SotO or requires to replay the story mode with each character as in EoD?

Conquest? Maybe. In MATs? Not at all. Not all new specs are good, but the ones which are are essentially busted in terms of mobility, sustain or burst.

For leveling purposes I would only use the Black Lion TP, purchasing weapons and armor pieces + trinkets around level 30-35, 45-50 and at 61-67. In total you could expect to spent 4-6 gold coins in the whole leveling up to80 and with that + what you get from rewards and loot it would be more than enough. Karma gear usually can't be salvaged and you will ditch it very soon unless is your first 80 exotic gear. My advice would be getting either condition damage + vit or power + vit until you get access to tripe stats ~60, to use then carrion (condi + power + vit). Take in consideration that at low levels precission, thoughness, healing power and condition duration (expertise) or boon duration (concentration) are useless stats.

I usually play heavies in OW, mostly Revs but oftenly Guardians and sometimes Mesmer. When I run Guardians my favourite builds for PvE are celestial Firebrand and TB/Viper Willbender. I WvW I swap the WB to a pure power (Dragon + Marauder) build, but for FB I pretty much keep the same build and stats. Firebrand celestial OW PvE: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAc6FlVwuYdMM2IW2WfvUA-DyIY1o7/USQBkpQoXRQHSAFfVIAh7HAA-e Firebrand is not a good build to solo hard bounties due the sustain is meh and the damage low, and any attempt to push one sinks the other, but is excellent for everything else (HPs, regular events, regular champions and harder ones as the bounty bandits, etc. The build has so much tools (reflects, aegis, stability access, AoE cc and damage... ) that you can have plenty of fun soloing things as long as you won't try to get speed runs. And for regular foes, the build just nukes everything in seconds... When I chose to run Willbender the build has less tools, but the damage is way higher: instead of burst of 18-25 burns as with the FB WB easily can stack 35+ burns and reach 20k fire damage x tick. The gameplay is more frenetic and you must constantly use your virtues. Agin, lacks in sustain and dps compared with th top dogs, but I enjoy the gameplay: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABw+t7lVwUZeMM2IO2WbxUA-DSZYchRGsZMlRpJRH1kDXCCQ4+BA-e I would add that I play those builds due I like the playstyle, no matter the performance: In terms of performance from the builds I like in OW I would rate cMirage > cVindi > pVindi > cRenegade > cWB > cFB, yet in terms of fun my rating would be pVindi > cFB > cRenegade > cWB > cMirage. So, a build being objectively better at one task doesn't mean that I will use it and ditch everything else. I'm currently playing only 2 builds at PvP and one of it is FB (despite being arguably the worst spec in that game mode), but I enjoy it and can make it work up to gold III, which is what matters to me (having fun).

Yeah, but with ele you need to known the class and how to use it. With Mirage you don't. I don't have a clue of what F1-F5 (never use them) and yet kills things 25% faster than Rev, which is my main and which I known to much larger extent. Clestial Mirage is like the old buffed Rifle Mech, but better due both damage and defense are better and instead of projectiles which can be blocked or reflected you spawn AoEs and attack indirectly, plus you also reflect back... As some streamers said, the most used builds are not necesarely the ones with the best damage output but the ones which while doing good damage demand less effort to work with. The same happens in OW high sustain builds: power Bladesworn has amazing dps but it is so concentrated in the Dragon burst that if you fail oftenly due you don't known well when the enemy will use blocks, or cast cc to interrupt you a lot of times you will end doing 0 and wasting seconds of charging into nothing.

Sure: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAYZlZwQYRsEmJWyP9PNA-DyIY1oivMysE6NDE+hAAA-e

Catalyst is the strongest OW performer amongst the Elementalist spec and yet is in second tier compared to the best ones in the game, and despite that is harder to play than a Mirage, Reaper or a cele Rev. The Weaver does less damage and is also hard, whereas the Tempest is easier but the damage falls even further. An aditional handicap is that most of Ele gameplay is mainly mele or mid range, which means higher risk. Ele absolutely can stomp PvE content as solo, but requires pianist hands and taking risk. Meanwhile Mirage can do the same at range and while using your nose to press the skills...

Tested stuff. Currently running: WvW Renegade (roamer): celestial stats, rune of Surging (power + boon duration + mobility) Durability relic. The boon duration makes if magnificent, 6.4" of protection and regeneration every 15 after a heal. I think that I prefer it over Antitoxin in this build due I have cleansings in Jalis (5), the staff skill (2) and a sigil of cleansing (3). In general I feel I don't need to add another 3 cleanses to those 10, whereas more than six seconds of protection + regen in a build with over 3k armor and healing power from cele stats feels just broken. PvE OW Renegade (solo and events), cele, viper or ritualist stats (run all in different gear templates, albeit prefer cele), Nightmare runes + Mirage for the extra torment procs while evading. But since I don't care that much about the damage buff I end running the roaming build with the Righteus Rebel trait to give perma alacrity to allies. PvP Renegade: Berserker amulet x Lynx rune 8power, vcondi damage and mobility) with Antitoxin relic. In PvP Durability relic only last 3 seconds (instead of 4) and we don't have cele stats to buff the boons; Brawler could work as ofensive alteranative at proccing Resolution but the duration of Brawler is meh and the aplication is limited, whereas Antitoxin just works without relevant nerfs. PvE OW Vindicator (solo and events): Celestial stats with either Tormenting or Nightmare runes, Mirage relic for dps or Durability for suatain. Feels similar to before the change. Still extremely tanky, still slow at moving so albeit enjoy its power is not my fav build. WvW Power DH (roamer): marauder stats, Ranger runes (to cap crit chance, Eagle are almost the same), Brawler relic (for the extra burst after each used vitue). Durability doesn't fit well due the larger cd in the heal doesn't overlap. PvP Power DH: Marauder stats, Lynx rune, Antitoxin relic. Here we have better mobility (without Speed) and since we won't crit cap Brawler feels limited, and DH doesn't have much cleanses. WvW Power Willbender (roamer): Dragon + Marauder stats, Eagle runes, Brawler relic. WB has mobility and good cleanses in WvW. Brawler seems perfect with the cosntant use of virtues to prtoc it but Durability can also work well if Reversal of Fortune is our heal due 16 s cooldowns fits perfectly with 15s cooldwon proc from the relic. PvE OW condi Willbender (solo and events): Dire + TB stats with Balthazar runes; since we lost 10%+ HP from the runes Durability works perfectly as sustain enhancement. Power WB PvP: Marauder + Eagle + Antitoxin. In PvP WB has one F2 clease less, so AT helps. Again, Durability is weaker in PvP compared to WvW. Hybrid Firebrand PvE (solo and events) & WvW (roaming) & PvP: I play a similar build in all the game modes, I have another 3 FB specialized templates that almost never touch. In WvW and PvE I run celestial stats + Baltahzar runes, in PvP Carrion + Balthazar. For mobility I use "Advance!" + Speed rune (which sadly last less and has higher cooldowns in PvP). Is not great in any game mode but unlike qFB, hFB and the rest of "meta" FB builds I enjoy this one. Is not that mobile, not that durable, lacks range, but has good cc, good defenses and in small skirmishes and sometimes in 1 v1 when lands the burst nukes everything in 3-4 seconds. I'm now trying to figure which runes and relics to use with my power Vindi (PvE, WvW and PvP). Is not easy due Fireworks buffed all (movement, vigor, damage from fury and might stacks, sustain...). The dps alternatives (relic of Brawler, Thief) are weaker and the options for mobility are either Surging (so we lose dps) or Speed runes (clunky to take advantage of). Durability isn't as strong in a non-celestial build. I have to test more...

If you run a power or condi build with berserker or viper stats and dps traits and utilities things will die faster, specially if you are in a large group. But if you're alone with that build and you meet one of the ten Bounty Hunters in central Tyria, or you try to do one of the Forged meta events in the desert lands, or to do a Bounty without help you probably will get your kitten kicked. When I do Palawadan events with other people I use a celestial Renegade build; it delivers permanent alacrity, provides stability and protection when needed, has tons of cc and delivers constant damage at any range, which only falls when I have to rezz some other (which is the reason why I run Jalis instead of Mallyx). Is impossible to claim "you're doing low damage" because I can solo any of the champions (outside the ships phase, which requires canons) including the boss. Sometimes I swap to power Vindi because is fun and does more damage, but doesn't help pugs in the same way. Is pVindi my fav build to solo champs, but when I need to solo a very hard bounty suaully swap to condi, due the better sustain (and because your condis ticks even when you're ceed). So for going alone in OW cele is 100% the way to go. Is just maths. By the way, the main reason some people does low dps in OW is not because bulds, stats or even rotations, but because they don't look what the foeas ere doing. People let the chaks to deploy pools of acid under their toes, or fire walls, etc... and instead of moving away they keep swarming the foe like rabid wolves and then get one-shooted. Then their damage goes low.

Four stat gear (Trailblazer) has 9.35% more stat points than three stat gear (Dire, Carrion...). Celestial stats has 74,38% more stat points than three stats gear. As long as you spec uses every stat point from celestial (as happens with builds with hybrid damage and powerful heals and reneneration) Celestial will be always stronger in PvE. The only spec at (solo PvE) the moment which is stronger with power stats than with celestial is Bladesworn, and is because stacks mega-attacks and can use those burst to self-heal if needed.

I have to disagree here. I've played with both the celestial and trailblazer varaints of Firebrand, Willbender and Mirage, and here is some data: In his last tier list Hizen puts celestial builds from Reaper, Mirage, Revenants and Mechanist (in no order) in the top tier. The first Guardian solo Open world spec in his list is Willbender, two tiers below, with Firebrand 6 tiers below and Dragonhunter as last wagon in the train. Let me explain the whys?: Firebrand has an amazing bag of tools, is swiss knife; you can deploy projectile deflections (Wall of Reflection, Valiant Bulkwark), instant stability on demand (Stand Your Grund!"), strong cc (Sanctuary) tons of cleanses, has access to aegis, regeneration... almost every boon. When you go Open World with a good FB build and full celestial it seems like your character has an answer to every situation, against every foe.... BUT, 1) The damage is low: you might stacking is crap, playing alone and you barely reach 11k dps against a non dangerous foe, which is lower than Revs and Mirages and around half of what Rangers and Reapers can output. You won't be able to kill bounties with Restorer, or with tons of cc. 2) Firebrand re-sustain is mediocre. Yes, Litany can full your HP each 20 seconds if played well but you will get hit more often than teh Mirage and your passive heals and regeneration is lower than with the Revs. In most of cases is not a problem, but agaist bounties and legendary bounties the thing changes a lot. 3) Albeit you AoE damage is fine, Firebrand lacks in range. When you face bounties with Phase-Shifted your dps will halve. Your resources also aren't as spammable as in the other cases: your pages takes time to recharge, and your shouts and consecrations have long cooldowns. The Willbender won't have as many tools as Firebrand, but does way more damage (specially as your gear moves to Trailblazer, Carrion, Viper or Griever). The reason is simple: your main source of damage are burn stacks, and thanx to Whirling Light your starting burst can reach 10+ stacks than a Firebrand (30-35). Roul's has farmed some bounties in better times than with Revs, albeit running viper stats. But there's some problems also: 1) The Willbender is a pure mele build, which is risky: if you get interrumpted your dps falls, and stability sources are finite The more aggresive your build is, higher the chances of being one shooted. Trailblazer, Dire or Carrion gear eases the way, but makes your dps lower. 2) Your cc is lower than in FB and the otehr builds and taking some compromises the damage. For that reasons I'll put WB and Firebrand in the mid to lower part of the tier list: they will smoke in seconds any group of veterans and most of regular champions due the bursting nature of the burn condition, but when facing foes with higher HP in long fights and dangerous attacks, as the Bandit Champions and Bounties you'll deplete your resources and you'll start to have troubles surviving and your damage will fall and the fights will take longer. Now, about the Traiblazer Mirage vs Celestial Mirage: I've used both; the damage is fairly equal. What gives the edge to the celestial stats is very simple: boon duration. You will have similar damage, armor and hp; your condi damage will be (and last less) lower but your phsycal damage will be better, but any boon you get will last at least 42% longer. That's huge, because you're playing alone, so with celestial stats you will have permanent fury, regeneratio, 25 stacks of might and very good uptime in vigor, alacrity and swiftness, to name a few. Now to put things in perspective: soloing the Siren's Landing Champion Unchained Kingpin (the risen Harpy) with cele FB takes me ~5'30", with marauder Vindicator ~3'45", with cele Renegade ~3'30", with cele Mirage ~2'15". Or the 3 Elemental "tornado" Champions from Sandswept Isles: 7'00" wuth my marauder Vindicator, 2'25" in my first attempt with cele Mirage, I'm sure that can be done much faster, but that is not the point: the point is that I don't known how to play Mesmer, yet halves the times of specs which I've mained.

Stealth and quickness duration was already heavily nerfed. Build was over effective in Ranked Conquest due most of players don't even use stability and I've seen players really mastering the build and wiping pugs in seconds, but in MAT the build clearly showcase its weakness. Aside from that, the nerfs in the Spiritual Sword burn procs removed hybrid DH from WvW time ago and in WO nad instanced content DH were almost absent. I've worked in the build with the new system and running marauder stats with Ranger runes and Brawler relic gives good burst and constant crit chance cap when you have fury and so far is how I would run it roaming (not my main choice, even in Guardian), but obviusly the main force multiplie was the stealth to generate chances of foes either wasting evades/blocks etc or allowing us to land True Shot, F1 or Hunter's Ward, and now that strength is over: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAMx7lNwcYNsP2IW+X5NAA-zVJYiRF/pEmEoXhQFKgWGBWaAA-w

I've been playing a lot solo builds vs bounties, most of the times with builds from Lord Hizen and albeit my preferences are biased due my likes for heavy armor professions I would give you my opinion about the best ones now with the implementation of the relics: 1) Celestial Mirage, double staff with nightmare runes and mirage relic. Pros: extremely easy to play, does good and consistent damage at any distance, has minions to distract foes, has lots of evades and i-frames. Cons: not much, other specs had stronger re-sustain and its cleanses were better in the past, but still can solo any bounty... 2) Celestial Vindicator/Herald, mace + axe + short bow, runes of tormenting or nightmare, mirage or durability relic. Pros: extremely tanky, can fight at any distance (with the SotO weapon Mastery), variety in legend and weapons of choice. Cons: lower damage, lost a bit of re-sustain with the rune changes, more demanding gameplay. 3) Celestial Reaper, staff + dagger + focus with flame legion runes, aristocracy or mirage relic. Pros: high damage, easy to play, durable. Cons: works best at close to mid range. All of the 3 are good at dealing with both single target and mobs. Overall I would say that Mirage is the best; has lower re-sustain than the other two but the amount of i-frames is huge and you can even fight indirectly vs foes which reflect damage thanx to the clones, plus has a more chill gameplay with less key strokes and more focus in positioning.

New day, apparently earned AA points "lost" have been now added to my Wizzard Valt which now displays the whole number. So the system doesn't loses the unclaimed points from previous days, which is fortunate to me. I'm still not happy about the design interface, but I guess my rant ends here. Thanx for the answers.

Because when you queue for entering in a filled WvW map or a PvP match, the games warns you if your wait is over with a audio clue and unmistakeable banner in the middle of the screen, which is sometimes annoying but performs as it should, whereas with the Wizzarld Vault the clues are minimal and there's no warning that you have a limited time to claim what you worked for. So there's a disparity in the UI design, which is their fault, not mine. Edit: to put it simple, GW2 has a UI as unified and regular as the USCS (which is not even the "imperial system".

They released an expansion being extremely vague about some of the changes they will introduce in the game, as the dailies, the runes or relics. Then when arrived the tooltips are lacking or even wrong, there's bugs due lack of testing and the new reward system lacks clarity. Remembers me the xp achivement system to ease the leveling for new players they introduced before the Steam release that no one uses because instead of a single list in order with all the things that boost your progress the achievements are fractioned in a convoluted swarm of non related things, so people get lost just in the menus...

No, I though that it was a signal of task done, so once I filled the bar of each one, I just leave it. In WvW and PvP reward tracks you don't need to click on any menu to claim anything, and the things you have to claim manually appear in little tinkling chest in the left corner, and you need to click once, then accept, then the content goes to your inventory (if you have space) and then you have open new chest, etc. The new system is 100% different in the way in which you interact with it. It also have time caps beyond you can't claim the rewards, whereas in the old, if you don't claim loot, gathereing materials or rewards chest (for example if you don't have free slots enough) it stops stacking the chain of clamable rewards. I don't known why you are surprised:: the Wizzard Vault has the visual design of the loot boxes for a phone game, but with 0 animations or sounds. I though that I was just seing a list of the task I did and the AA currency would be added to my purse and then I would have to spent it before the end of the season. The system is also different from the Black Lion Market, which sends the purchases to your main and when you check it you see the stuff and a button to claim or refuse. This Wizaard Vault has no "claim" buttons nor animations of any kind. How would I to figure that after doing the task I'm not getting the rewards due something as dumb as not clicking in a static screen with no animations and no intications of "hey, you have to click here if you want your AA".

I guess "Obscure" fits everything related with the expansion. In the previous system everything you earned was either instantly added to your purse or remained tinkiling in the left corned until you claimed it. In the new Anet doesn't even care if players claims rewards or not. Just imagine checking your bank account discovering that last month you didn't receive your salary and once asked the accountant of your company just answered "lol you didn't claim your wage!"

I did the "dailies" of the days 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 and found weird that the currency wasn't stacking. A few minutes ago accidentally click a chest icon and noticed that the reward became unlocked. So essentially I lost every progress made in the past five days, without even knowning it. Thanks Anet for explaining this in nowhere, I'm sure will please both veterans and newcomers. Keep your programmers busy in the gem store instead of fixing bugs or releasing new "features" as this vault crap; at least in the gem store they can't hurt us.

New runes lost boon procs, 10% HP enhancements and tons of cool effects and interactions (summons, stealth with traps...). The new ones are just stat numbers, and most of them redundant, they have nothing unique. Relics, you have Speed, Antitoxin, Durability as useful in general. Then you have good ones for niche roles or specific specs as Monk7Water/Mercy for healers and Brawler for Willbender or Deadeye for Deadeye. Only condition relics have some variety or new interactions, but most are "cast X kind of skill or evade to proc Y for Z seconds". The lack of fury, might, vigor or vuln stacks in the relics essentially means that either you reroll your class which is bad at proccing them (sorry folks, get a good one next time!) or wait for ANet to sell you in the form of pay to win new relics attached to the next expansion. I'm fine since my main procs everything but most of my alts are now just mules. Also, I'll miss DH trapper in PvP/romaing (the only game modes in which didn't suck).

Under the new design changes, the Superior Runes in GW2 are now a piece of gear that between its six parts provide a total of 400 stats points when only 2 main stats are granted (for example, Scholar gives now 175 points of power and 225 points of Ferocity). The general rule for secondary attributes (expertise, ferocity, healing power, boon duration) is that every 15 stat points increases the value ina 1% (the same as precission increase the crit chance in 1%), so a similar conversion can be done to calculate the value of each sets of runes. But under that view some runes with secondary stats provide way more value: runes with 4 slots of main stats and 2 slots of 5% and 10% secondary stats deliver 425 stat points in value (Monk, for example). Runes with 25% increase in secondary stats as Fireworks or Lyssa provide 550 points in value. Calculate the value in stat points of runes with non general effects (as having 50% duration in a single condition as Balthazar) or a special feature as 25% increase in movement speed (Traveller, Cavalier, Surge) is harder: Balthazar is a waste if you don’t deal burn damage but represents 925 stat points if you only do burn damage and run a condi build, as happens with some Guardians), qol of increased movement speed is hard to evaluate: can be meaningless for a raid player but crucial for a WvW roamer. Then there’s the runes with “all stat bonus”: Leadership brings 627 stat points in value, whereas Divinity delivers 546 stat points. This showcases a landscape with huge defferences in stat values in which the real benefit depends on the context: if you hit your cap level in crit chance or damage duration before chosing the runes, you won’t invest in those stats no matter how good is the objective value of the stat points in the rune. But my impression is that in general unless you’re running a instanced premade build runes with bonus in secondary stats give more bang for the buck. There’s only 3 runes with the 25% increased movement speed (Traveler, Cavalier and Surging), with the later ones requiring large amounts of WvW/PvE tonkens to be purchased. There’s no runes with 10% HP increase effect. In PvP Lynx can be the perfect choice for hybrid builds chasing better mobility, since provides power & condition damage; Traveler there is weak since there’s no celestial stats to carry in PvP and boon duration is minimal in that game mode. All in all, the runes are a bit meaningless now: most of them are just stat numbers and very few will have use, with power & ferocity and condition damage & expertise being the most obvious choices outside support builds. Anet could probably just integrate the runes in the armor/trinket stat system (or delete them to prevent power creep), but that wold erase tons of rewards from the game and affect the economic balance. In general, without the Relics the old system was stronger, with much more impactful features attached to some particular runes. Relics. At the moment, relics are way fewer (40 vs 99) that the number of the older 6th rune features, and most of them are gone forever. The new piece would bring new effects and special relics from expansions will offer entirely new interactions. The current roster is divided in Relics related to power damage, condition damage, support and survival. Relics are exotic in quality and therefiore soul bond (can’t be moved between characters). Their wiki is stll lacking and full of imprecissions or just unexplained interactions. This is my review of them after some testing: Survival Speed relic seems the only strong choice here. Seems a bit niche since you need a build with good swiftness access in order to take advantage of the incresed speed, but if you want increased mobility and for a reason you don’t want to run Sourging, Traveler or Cavalier runes the Speed Relic can be a very good alternative. Fits very well my PvE/WvW Firebrand which runs “Advance!”. In PvP I prefer using Lynx runes since the duration of swiftness is way shorter there. At the moment I run Fireworks rune + Speed relic in PvE in my OW Firebrand, and Lynx rune + Brawler relic in PvP. Speed rune in Revenants can make plenty iof sense if you run Rapid Flow trait in Invocation, since you’ll get the benefits almost constantly. The problem I find out is that you can’t stack swiftenss in duration, so you’re forced to cast abilities with energy cost to proc swiftness to get the benefit when swiftness expires, and that’s annoying (and can be hard in competitive game modes) Instead, in my celestial Renegade build I prefer to use Surging runes: I get the passive permanent movement pace with no compromises, boon duration to stack with celestial, and power stats. Herald can get swiftness without resorting in Rapid Flow, but movement doesn’t seem as a crucial problem in Herald as in a non WB Guardian. Maybe Speed relic fits better a condition Herald, albeit with the short bow available a condi Herald roamer shouldn’t be as menaced by lack of mobility. Do Speed relic affect Vidnicator builds? Vindicator has the largest potential in mobility amongst Rev builds, so is not that vital. To me, the worst part of SotO expansion for Vindi was losing the procs of fury + might + vigor in the Firworks rune (or the procs in Durability rune). Fireworks changes hut dps, sustain and evade mechanics all at the same time. I can replace Fireworks with Surging keeping the qol and boon duration, but the damage is lost, and so far didn’t found any solution in the new relics. The rest of Survival relics seems to be utter niche situational crap, and a waste of space. Support. Antitoxin relic instantly makes Water relic useless, talking about redundance. Seems one of the strongest choices for player vs player interaction, specially if you play Renegade or Vindicator (Herald cleanses usually sucks). But neither of them require this relic. I’m using it in PvP in my Renebow but I’m still unsure. For Guardians, WB in PvE/WvW has too many cleanses to care, and Bawrler seems better choice. In PvP WB cleanses remain nerfed, so can help. Durability: a solid choice for Revs in since you can heal every 15 seconds (or less) and specially for cele Renegade since the increased boon duration in full celestial is 60% so you can get 6,4 seconds of protection + regeneration every 15 seconds you complete you heal animation. That seems bonkers and won’t surprise me if gets a nerf. The same can be said with most of WvW builds and specs: given how weak are the power ofensive relics, the best choices if your mobility is covered is either condi relics or Durability or Antitoxin. Less useful in PvP due crap boon duration. Leadership relic: good for Herald but not as good as Antitoxin. Other support runes: Trooper, Monk, Mercy… are for the niche role of defensive support builds; will serve well raiders and some members in organized PvP/WvW guilds but for mosr of players going alone have no use. Of course, in a small squad vs squad WvW skirmish the group with the misntrel healer + support runes will usually outsustain their foes. So they have value, but is situational and I usually don’t fit in that situations. Power. For instanced content some have value for specific builds, a Deadeye can easily turn that 10% damage in a permanent bonus at raids and even competitive game mode. But most of the power relics require “use X each T seconds to get N damage bonus”, and most of classes doesn’t even have the X or T required, so again is suepr niche and super weak; old runes provided boon procs in spades, new relics don’t gran access to fury, might stacks, invulns or anything similar. I find out Brawler useful in my Firebrand and Willbender builds, but not better that what they had las Monday. 0 usable relics hele for Revs, IMO. Condition. This is the meat of the relic system, were some of the best PvE (and sometimes unintended) synergies landed, and which made some builds able to nock in the 50k dps door. Sadly most of them won’t give much to heavy armor professions. Reaper relic: effective in competitive game modes, specially for Cryomancers/Terrormancers which can enhance their already powerful cc game. You can also troll with a support Guardian or Warrior which interrupts people, but if you run shouts with those classes the mate will probably remain in Trooper relic. Necromancer relic: I think that this is even stronger than Reaper relic, since most of necro builds in compoetitive game modes don’t use more than a couple of shouts and the chill duration last a second (plus condi ruration) whereas with Necromancer relic now your foes under fear moves as slow as chilled (albeit they don’t lower their cooldown timers) and fear last for ages in Terrormancer builds. This has broken potential in WvW/PvP... Krait, Nightmare relics: powerful but not spammy. I don’t think that would get much use from Revs or Guardians. Mirage relic: a perfect PvE choice for some condi builds, including Herald, Renegade and Vindicator (specially that later since greatly benefits from spamming aveades). I still don’t see condi Revs working in PvP so I guess is way weaker there... The other condition relics seems colorful but less impactful. There’s some weird interactions like the one which scales damage with heals and turned Druid staff into a nuke laser in WvW but those can be expected to be adjusted to a more normal performance. Overall I’m not happy with the relic system: most of the effects in the 6th rune are gone, which destroyed some builds which had niche use (goodbye trapper Dragonhunter) or greatly reduced boon access. That doesn’t mean that my PvE Vindicator can’t get permanent fury, vigor, 25 stacks of might, protection and either quickness or regeneration (I still can) but that if your class/spec was weaker at accessing at ofensive boons (Guardian) now you can’t compensate it with runes nor relics and therefore you should probably think about reroll… So I don’t see the increase in build variety which was the motto to promote the undemanded changes in runes. I think that this was a move made to a) force players to regrind and spent time to regear again; b) cut boom access and c) remove things which required balance. So is the same tactic than when they removed amulets and runes and sigils in PvP and nerfed everything so had that 80% of builds since EoD ended running the same Divinity not due was OP dut beacuse everytnig else was crap. Easily 75% of the old (now new) runes are redundant and pretty much meta PvE builds will run 2-3 dps choices (a bit more variety inm support builds). Relics will mandate a single choice for meta PvE attached to a single build, unless competitive game modes in which maybe we will see 7-8 in use. Between survival, support and power relics I only find 4 relics that give good value; condition relics double that number but they are very situational. Power relics in general sucks. Of course things will change once the the exclusive new relics from new expansions arrive with they new pay to win powercreep enhancements, but I'll be clear here: I didn't bought SotO, I think that for a PvP/WvW players offers nothing and therefore I voted with my wallet, so the menace of "missing out" means nothing to me.